1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to closure devices and somewhat more particularly to garment closure devices.
2. Prior Art
A variety of closure devices for all types of goods, including garments, are known. Closure devices especially adapted for use in combination with garments require certain features. They should be capable of comfortably securing and maintaining a garment about the body of a wearer during anticipated activities and should be relatively dependable and non-obtrusive. Typical garment closure devices include hooks and eyes, lace-ups, snaps, buttons, zippers, elastic waist bands, drawstrings, webs, belts, hook and loop fasteners, etc.
Some relatively modern garments, such as jackets, shorts or even shoes, have fasteners formed from complementary strips or pieces of Velcro-type hook and nap or pile material. Generally, a strip of one type of Velcro material is secured along an edge of a garment to be fastened and another complementary strip of the opposing type of Velcro-type material is secured along a manipulative portion of such garment so that the wearer can bring the two complementary strips of Velcro material together to form a temporary closure. These types of closures are generally adequate for normal activities but are not sufficiently dependable for highly energetic activities, such as athletic activities, for example martial art competition, gymnastics, etc. There are presently known casual-wear type garments, such as shorts, which utilize a decorative belt or web (without a buckle) combined with strips of Velcro-type material to obtain a very non-obtrusive fastening means. In one of these type of casual garments, pairs of mating strips of Velcro-type material are respectively provided along inner front area edges of the shorts and along an end area and an opposing media area of a belt or web sewn about the waist area of the shorts, with the two ends of the web somewhat overlapping each other and positioning their respective strips of Velcro-type material in mating positions. This type of closure arrangement may be suspect of tending to accidentally open, even during normal activities, such as walking and does not provide any meaningful size adjustment feature.
Further, certain athletic garments require quick releasing-closing features, a traditional appearance, easy size adjustability, ready access to interior portions for adjustment of a body part or a protector therefore, etc. At present, available garment closures do not adequately provide these and other desirable features.